Mother-son custodians take pride in Central Elementary School

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — Bright, shiny floors, sparkling classrooms and a gym floor reminiscent of Celtics pride will welcome Grades K-3 students back to Central Elementary School in a couple weeks — thanks in large part to custodians led by a unique mother-and-son team.

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By David Ramsay

seacoastonline.com

By David Ramsay

Posted Aug. 20, 2011 at 2:00 AM

By David Ramsay
Posted Aug. 20, 2011 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — Bright, shiny floors, sparkling classrooms and a gym floor reminiscent of Celtics pride will welcome Grades K-3 students back to Central Elementary School in a couple weeks — thanks in large part to custodians led by a unique mother-and-son team.

Seventy-six-year-old Jan Vancour jokes with her son, Kevin, about how she trained him in all that he knows about the fine art of keeping floors brightly polished and removing black scuff marks.

"The challenge is keeping it looking like this all year with 500 kids here and staff members in and out," Kevin said.

"It's an old school, built in 1925, but we take pride in it," Jan said. "It takes lot of work for this old school, but we keep up with it." She works the night shift from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Even the black marks are rubbed out from the floors every day in every classroom.

"We do all the floors every night. We wash and buff them every night; we do them the old-fashioned way," she said.

Despite the physically challenging nature of her work, Jan said she loves her job.

"It's the kids; I just love them — they come up and give you a hug," she said. "'Hello, Mrs. Vancour, I love you,' they say."

In the mid-1980s, she was asked to come to the school, and after only six months on the job, the head custodian became ill and she was asked to take over.

She said the school needed a lot of work at the time. Undaunted, she said, Jan and her husband bought paint themselves and painted every room in the building.

Formerly employed in construction, Kevin started at the school in 1991 because it was steady work and he had a young family to take care of. "It's a lot of work, but my friends envy me in the winter," he said.

"There's no elevator and everywhere you go, there's 30 stairs," Jan added, explaining how cleaning floors involves taking buckets of water up and down the stairs four times to each of the three floors and the basement.

Kevin works from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. He said he likes the work because "it's a challenge to maintain the inside and outside of the building." He is responsible for all the outdoor work maintaining the grounds and constant repair work inside.

"I'm a jack of all trades. I'll be outside, weed-whacking, doing repair work and then someone will call me inside," he said.

The Vancours said they have seen younger people come to the job and quit, complaining the work was "slave labor," but they insisted that all the custodial staff in the district do an outstanding job. They were particularly pleased with the work of the third member of their custodial staff, hired just last year, Gene Cheney, a 2010 Marshwood High School graduate.

Principal Vicki Stewart appreciates the work the Vancours do for the school.

"They're like family members, members of our staff. They know they're part of our family and that where we live, our building, is our house," she said. "(Jan is) like the perfect host to everyone who comes into your building.

"That's how they see their job — that they want it to be safe and beautiful for the students and staff members and the community because they know because it reflects on us," she said.